Wednesday, November 02, 2016

#Inktober 2016 | Days 21-31

Inktober is finally over and I can share the last pieces I worked on for it! I'm going to be honest and admit that I really struggled with the last ten days of the challenge. I think doing Inktober back to back with my own #ADeerADay challenge, while also trying to work on crafts, blogging and my day job was just a bit too much and I started to feel very burned out. I'm still glad I did Inktober and completed it though. I'll be trying to do a bit less during November so I can refresh and regroup.

On day 21 I did a little study of some acorns and a walnut shell I had found on various walks. I really like doing these botanical illustrations so I think I will be doing more work in that style in future. I used Brian Cledd Drawing Ink for the background and Winsor and Newton inks for the colours and details, as I did for nearly all of the images in this post.

On day 22 I did an image of some bracket fungi I had seen in the woods.

Day 23 was a pumpkin with an interesting speckled rind.

Day 24 was another fungus I saw in the woods.

Day 25 was a magpie inkcap fungus, something I didn't know existed until someone posted a photo of it on Twitter.

Day 26 was a fruit bat.

Day 27 was a jackalope. I want to draw more jackalopes in future.

Day 28 was a raven. I liked the colourful iridescent effect I managed to achieve on the wings, but the ink came out unfortunately shiny on this one.

Day 29 was more pumpkins.

Day 30 was a vine covered house, loosely based on one I saw in the Cotswolds. For this I used the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen for the outlines.

Day 31 was a witchy house with crooked windows, again using the Pentel Pocket Brush pen for outlines. And with that, I was done! Overall I am really glad I did the Inktober challenge, even though it was tough. Ink seems to work well for me as a medium, and I've produced some pieces I really like. Although my inks have been put away in a cupboard for now, I'm sure they will re-appear again soon.

For now, I'm going to spend some time focusing on crafts and reading, and all the other things I haven't really had time to do for the last two months. And cleaning up all the ink stains...